Many organisations transfer personal data to countries outside the European Union (EU) on a regular basis. Now Safe Harbor has sunk, an alternative has to be found. At the moment, the most practical alternative is the use of model clauses approved by the European Commission (EC). To help you get started, LegalICT offers an online generator with which you can draft a contract based on the EC model clauses within minutes. The generator isn’t just fast and easy: it’s free as well!
The protection of personal data (data which relate to an identified or identifiable individual) is greatly valued in the European Union. In many other parts of the world, the protection level is not as high as it is in the EU. Therefore, organisations are bound to specific rules when transferring data to third countries. Briefly stated, data transfer to third countries is only permitted when the protection level is guaranteed to be similar to the level of protection in the EU.
The United States (US) do not provide a protection level equivalent to ours. In the past, the Safe Harbor treaty provided a self-certification framework for American organisations. Through these self-certifications, the American organisations were considered to provide an adequate level of data protection.
Since the ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU, Safe Harbor can no longer be used to comply with the legal requirement of an adequate level of protection. Therefore, data transfers to the US based on Safe Harbor are unlawful. Organisations need an alternative to be able to transfer personal data to the US. For now, use of the EC model clauses provide the most practical alternative.
Using our generator, you can draft these clauses tailored to your situation yourself. After completion of the questionnaire a document is generated, that basically only needs signing. You can always edit the generated document in any regular word processing program (e.g. Microsoft Word).
The generator contract is suited for the transfer of personal data from an EU-based controller, to a processor in a third country. Are you a controller transferring data to another controller, please contact us. The same applies for any questions regarding the generator, the model clauses or any other (privacy related) issues.
